I was thinking of getting this set for a friend of mine for Christmas too. I'll wait until I get my own set and see though. I have nothing against autos in general, my KR808s work really well and I enjoy them. But I was disappointed in the 510 autos I've tried. I have better hopes for this one, though.
My friend has smoked for as long as I have (30 some years), and she refuses to quit, but is willing to consider e-cigs, at least for those times when she can't use the cancer-sticks, like in the house around her son and husband. But when I tried to explain to her what to get, etc, she got overwhelmed and didn't want to bother. She told me to just get her the "stuff" for Christmas. So now I'm tasked with getting her something that will be easy to use.
I suspect she'd actually do better with an auto, as long as it's a good one and doesn't make her fuss with it.